Bills fire Edwards, promote Wannstedt to defensive coordinator

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 2, 2012, 3:54 PM EDT

AP

Bills coach Chan Gailey announced at today’s season-ending press conference that he has fired defensive coordinator George Edwards and will replace him by promoting assistant head coach/linebackers coach Dave Wannstedt to the coordinator job.

This was Wannstedt’s first year on the Bills’ staff, following six seasons as head coach at the University of Pittsburgh. He’s previously been the head coach of the Dolphins and Bears, as well as defensive coordinator of the Dolphins and Cowboys. He has generally been well respected as a coordinator but less than well respected as a head coach.

Edwards had been the Bills’ defensive coordinator for the last two years. Gailey added that he is currently evaluating the rest of his staff.

Gailey also addressed the Bills’ personnel, including receiver Stevie Johnson, who was benched on Sunday after picking up a celebration penalty following a touchdown catch. Gailey said he’s open to re-signing Johnson, who will be a free agent, but that he would want to make sure he and Johnson are on the same page. And Gailey defended quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has been criticized because his play declined after he signed a lucrative contract extension during the season. Gailey said he believes that as the team improves, Fitzpatrick’s play will improve.

dave wannstedt should go back to miami he was the coach in 2000, 2001, and 2002 thats when the chiefs beat the dolphins 48-30 at kansas city and the chiefs will never beat miami at home again unless kansas city gets peyton manning.

This is a travesty…that guy was on the staff and the defence stunk…they talk about his work with Dallas dee 20 yrs ago..wth….How about someone from Lebeau’s staff.
.you know someone who runs great defences from this side of the century and win championships……unreal! !!!!

Dave Wannstedetdt…. oh yes, the man who picked Jamar Fletcher over Drew Brees.
As a Dolphin fan, all I can hope for is that Wanny has a strong voice in all draft decisions by the Bills. That would be some form of compensation for a lost decade.

3. Let me preface this by saying that I really don’t care for the Bills or their fans, but in all seriousness, the Bills ought to look into hiring Bill Polian back now that Indy let him go. The last time the Bills were any good us when he was GM

as a dolphin fan, i’m sorry buffalo. really i am. even a division rival does not deserve to go through this guy. just wait too, he’ll be your interim head coach at some point and probably have that title removed in 2013.
i really am sorry

Wanny has been a good coordinator as long as I can remember, he just never should be a head coach again. Bills fans need to take it easy on Chan too, this team is so lacking of talent it is scary. They were almost as bad as those 0-16 Lions talent-wise its going to take some time to rebuild that mess. Fix both lines (o and d), give the qb some wrs who can get open AND catch the ball, and get tge corners some decent safety help before you judge the head coach.

It’s possible that the game has passed him by, but Wannstedt was an excellent defensive coordinator back in the day. This is a sensible move. I’m not willing to bet any money on how it works out, but on paper it’s a good decision.

But know this, Bills fans: This guy has taken two playoff-caliber clubs and run them into the ground. The Dolphins are still trying to recover from his tenure as head coach. If they promote him, the best thing to do would be storm the offices with torches and pitchforks and run him out of town on a rail. You DO NOT want this guy in charge of your franchise.

Fine. At least we’ll know. The dysfunction of this organization makes it so unwatchable almost no one cares anymore if it goes. I mean, there is so little entertainment value as it is now if it goes it goes. If Ralph “goes” and the Bills somehow stay that is the only hope for Bills fans to have a product that is worth something.

I can’t argue this guys lack of production in Miami but Dolphin fans do realize HC isn’t DC right? Thanks for all of your sympathy but keep it. Plenty of coaches make better coordinators than head coaches and Wanstadt has proved to be one of them. I am pleased with this move and between this and getting Williams back and another year under our 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounder’s belts think this bodes well. .. oh yea,And thank you for George Edwards.

3. Let me preface this by saying that I really don’t care for the Bills or their fans, but in all seriousness, the Bills ought to look into hiring Bill Polian back now that Indy let him go. The last time the Bills were any good us when he was GM.

Buffalo isn’t going anywhere.

Chan is doing a good job with what he has.

Polian was fired because he acted like a child by not being able to get along with Jeff Littmann. That was why he was run out of Buffalo.
Chan Gailey and Buddy Nix are steps away from being serious contenders, why would Ralph Wilson start over again? I believe Wilson wants a championship before he goes to the promised land. By the way, we don’t care for you either.
Signed, Bills Fan.